It’s a warm summer’s night here in (Ancient Greece) Croatia. Some of you, who are fans of The Big Bang Theory show, might find this starting sentence familiar. For the rest, please excuse this off-topic, but it serves good to describe the actual feeling in the really warm Croatia.

Anyhow, I wanted to share some news with you. I sincerely love those opportunities when we get some time and chance to share what are we working on and how do we see the world around us via this blog.

On July 9th there will be exactly 9 months since our official incorporation. Before joining FatDUX, I’ve worked at Microsoft Development Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. My team there was really proud on the fact that they have consistent and strong track of record delivering the solutions, products and services to customers. We used to celebrate product releases with “We deliver” parties. And that culture of constant ability to deliver was something that has influenced and shaped me, and now the team I’m leading here in Zagreb.

So, nine months behind us – we have delivered, too. Pun intended.

It’s hard to list all the projects and clients we’ve worked with and to list specifics of those projects – some are still under NDA, but I can say that we’ve been working on all UX fronts – from mobile, desktop and web solutions, digital signage, copywriting, SEO and analytics to consulting and education. We’ve bitch slapped the crisis and opened some new opportunities and markets outside the Croatia and Europe.

Staying lean and effective is one of my personal goals. Delivering exceptional value to our customers is our DNA. Delivering constantly is our mission.

If I have to pick a single project we’ve worked on, it’s definitely our Wall of Tweets twitter wall. It’s a best available customized twitter wall solution. Hands down. Used and accessed by thousands of users every month, used by clients big and small, it’s something we did for fun, as a pet project. We kept it simple. Powerful. Engaging. And we still keep innovating and delivering on those values.

So, as we are approaching our first birthday (by the way, our mothership, The FatDUX Group has celebrated 4 successfully years last week, hear, hear!), I’m confident and inspired more than ever that we will keep delivering. After all, with this team, it’s just a game. One we are so passionate about.

It’s what customers expect from us. It’s what we must give to the world. It’s what we LOVE.

Hello World! This is the phrase usually used by programmers to show some basic coding concept and prepare a demo project or introduce some code snippet in particular code language. But for me, being able to say „Hello World!“ from Zagreb after more than 6 successful months is tremendous experience – one that is both making me proud and humble at the same time.

So, here we are, more than 6 months after our official incorporation. Thriving. Taking the phrase „crisis is an opportunity“ seriously and making it a part of our own DNA. Bitch-slapping the economic downturn… Oh, and having fun along the way. Just like we all should do.

But there are many challenges here. Both personal and business related. Today, I want to celebrate the idea of Team. It doesn’t matter what Team we are talking about – what matters is the fact that Team is crucial. It’s late Friday evening here at Zagreb while I’m writing this post. I’ve just sent huge e-mail to Antun and Darko, our core team members here in Croatia. It was one of the most serious e-mails I’ve sent away in a long time. I need help. And I’m looking for that help from my Team.

For all our lives we are being encouraged to be strong. Often, we are being told that asking for help is a sign of weakness. Well, I’m able to see, live and celebrate the fact that saying something like that is wrong.

When faced with challenges – it’s more than OK to ask for help. Actually, it is necessary. Being able to say: “I have a problem and I need your help!” is not easy. But it is something that needs to be done.

I’m blessed with the fact that I’m managing terrific people here in our Zagreb office. More than that, I’m happy to be able to ask for and receive help.

This last week, we’ve attended Microsoft’s WinDays conference held in Rovinj, beautiful town located in Istria, largest Croatian peninsula. I’ve delivered presentation about how to prepare your apps for Windows 7 and new UX concepts and, as a Team, we’ve also delivered our very popular Wall of Tweets solution along with the interactive displays concepts and service design implementations. It was a blast.

But also it was an eye-opener in terms of what more we can do. Living the Team, building the Team and asking the Team for help and support is what is needed. Business part of the conference was focused around the topics of innovation and society based on knowledge. Our Prime minister, Jadranka Kosor (she was the one opening the conference) has presented her package of reforms and measures that are supposed to make Croatian economy better and more innovative. They are tough, much needed and will encounter serious resistance in some parts of Croatian society.  Personally, I wholeheartedly do support those measures, only I’m afraid that they are more like the list of good wishes and intentions. We miss inner readiness and will to make them real.

We miss Team. We, as a society and as individuals are only looking for our own matters. We do lack ability to see wider picture. And most importantly, we miss the ability to be and stay humble. Not by killing the proudness and individualism in us – but by nurturing the ability to be humble and allow us to develop better relations with other people, friends, our clients and even our competitors.

My personal business goal for FatDUX Zagreb by the end of 2010 is not to grow our revenue and client base (that is going good, thanks for asking!) but it is to be more effective, time efficient and humble. Humble to ourselves, to our friends, to everyone… It’s not something that can be reported in Excel spreadsheets but it as of the utmost importance for the business.

And yes – I need help and that is why I asked for it. I asked my Team.

Humble 101? Lesson 1? You tell me…